If you’re a member, do a quick search for ad boxes with a $0 min/max bid. You’ll notice that there’s about 1,100 sites (with 125×125 boxes, which I’ll be using in this example). Now, sort that list by highest page views per day. Somewhere around page 10 you’ll notice that the ad boxes stop having minimum bids. In other words, it’s absolutely free to put your ad box up. While this would be a great way to advertise this site, I have something else in mind. Specifically, affiliate marketing offers. Here’s what I’ve done:

Offer

I picked a “free ipod” email submit from Advaliant.

Ad

Did a Google image search for an iPod, shrunk it to 125×125, and added “Test and keep a free iPod” as the alt text.

Bids

I placed bids on 91 sites, all for $0 lasting two days (the longest you can have a $0 ad up). These sites vary wildly in page views, ranging from 5 to 500 per day. I figure my ad will get one to two thousands impressions per day.

Will I make money?

I really don’t expect to. This is just a little case study to see if it’s possible to make a few bucks with Project Wonderful while spending nothing at all. I’m trying an email submit first because, well, they’re the simplest kind of offer out there. I plan on trying a few other kinds of offers over the next week, but I’ll let you guys know how this one works out.

Also, keep in mind that I’m only searching for 125×125 ad boxes for this experiment. Your mileage may vary with larger/different types of ads.